Chapter 4: Solutions Are Made, Not Found
1344 Words
The kitchen door was completely blocked by the pile of zombie corpses, making it impassable. Ethan Carter had no choice but to climb out the window again. However, the window had been severely damaged by the earlier assault of over a dozen zombies and was now in shambles.
Shards of broken glass littered the area, coated with black liquid and chunks of flesh—presumably left behind by the zombies.
Entering the dining hall, Ethan found it eerily silent. The earlier battle had lured and eliminated all the zombies, leaving the place in disarray—like it had been ransacked by robbers.
Ethan spent over an hour carefully inspecting the entire third floor. He found no survivors but did encounter one or two stray zombies in the other two kitchens. With the help of his Phantom Assassin, they were easily dealt with, becoming valuable experience for his next level-up. Unfortunately, neither zombie dropped anything.
After packing all the supplies from the two kitchens into his storage ring, Ethan’s inventory swelled several times over.
Once he confirmed that the third floor was completely cleared of zombies, Ethan made his way to a window overlooking the campus to assess the situation outside.
What he saw left him utterly speechless.
Thousands of people were aimlessly running through the campus, chased by massive hordes of zombies. The number of zombies easily exceeded ten thousand.
Many of the fleeing people stumbled and fell, only to be overwhelmed by the pursuing zombies. Their screams were short-lived as they were torn apart and eventually joined the ranks of the undead.
Cries, shouts, and screams echoed throughout the campus, painting a grim picture of the apocalypse.
And this was just the chaos outside the buildings. Inside the academic halls, the situation was even worse. Countless students screamed as they fled their classrooms, only to find the hallways teeming with zombies as well.
In their desperate attempts to escape, students and teachers alike ignored what floor they were on and leaped out of windows without a second thought. Many ended up falling to their deaths or injuring themselves, only to be devoured by the hordes of zombies waiting below, torn apart piece by piece.
Scenes of such brutality were visible throughout the campus.
While some were paralyzed by fear, a few others fought back. These individuals, always grouped in threes or fives, wielded weapons ranging from wooden sticks similar to Ethan’s to tables and chairs. But against the overwhelming number of zombies, their survival seemed precarious, with death looming over them at every moment.
Ethan trembled uncontrollably at the sight. The mere thought of falling into the zombie horde sent chills down his spine—he couldn’t even begin to imagine the outcome.
At the same time, he felt a wave of relief wash over him. Staying in the sparsely populated cafeteria during class hours had been a stroke of luck. Otherwise, he might have ended up like the others, either fighting a losing battle or joining the ranks of the undead.
“This is the end of the world… the real end of the world,” Ethan murmured as he gazed at the devastation that was once his campus.
“Help! Someone, please help me…”
Just then, Ethan heard a faint cry for help. It wasn’t coming from the campus grounds—it was from within the cafeteria building itself!
“It’s coming from the second floor!” Ethan quickly pinpointed the source of the sound and immediately ran toward the staircase leading downstairs. However, he stopped abruptly at the stairwell.
“Should I save them or not? I have no idea how many zombies are down there. It could be incredibly dangerous. But if I don’t, am I just going to stand by and let them be torn apart? What if I just turn a blind eye…?”
Ethan found himself caught in a dilemma, torn between retreating and taking action.
“I should at least try to save them. Judging by what’s happening outside, it’s clear we won’t be leaving anytime soon. What, am I just going to stay here alone? If I save them, at least I’ll have someone to talk to.”
Resolving to take action, Ethan began making his way cautiously down to the second floor.
At the landing, he peered carefully into the second-floor hall—and froze in shock. At least a hundred zombies were wandering aimlessly in the dining area, most of them dressed as students, with a few in chef uniforms and janitor outfits.
“Seriously? What were you all doing hanging around the cafeteria during class? Just here to make my life harder?” Ethan muttered under his breath, a mix of frustration and disbelief.
The first and second floors of Riverton University’s cafeteria were always the most crowded, with areas easily twice the size of the third floor. Many students, driven by laziness, preferred to eat on the lower levels to save a few extra steps. They only ventured up to the third floor when the first two were full.
Because this was class time, the third floor had been almost empty, and Ethan had only encountered a dozen zombies. But the second floor was a completely different story. With plenty of open seating and students arriving just before class, it had become a hotspot for zombies when the apocalypse struck.
“Help! Someone, please help us…”
As Ethan Carter surveyed the second floor, the cry for help rang out again, this time much clearer. He quickly pinpointed the source—a private dining room on the second floor.
The doorway to the room was crowded with zombies, and the voice was unmistakably coming from inside. Listening carefully, Ethan also noticed faint sobbing coming from other private rooms. However, unlike the person yelling for help, the others seemed to be staying quiet.
“What an i***t. Screaming like that—might as well just tell the zombies exactly where you are,” Ethan muttered with disdain for the noisy survivor.
“What should I do with so many zombies?” Ethan wondered.
One or two wouldn’t be an issue—especially with Shadow, his Phantom Assassin, by his side. A few zombies were basically free experience points. But with over a hundred zombies in the second-floor hall, if they all swarmed him at once, he and Shadow would be torn apart in seconds.
Frustrated, Ethan retreated to the third floor and sat down, racking his brain for a solution. After carefully reviewing his situation, he realized that after killing two more zombies on the third floor, he was now just 20 experience points away from leveling up.
His eyes lit up. “Why not use the same trick as before? I can take out the zombies downstairs, save the survivors, and level up at the same time—it’s a win-win!”
Acting on his plan, Ethan immediately began moving chairs from the third floor to block the staircase. He left only a narrow passage, wide enough for a single zombie to pass through. To ensure the barricade wouldn’t collapse under pressure, Ethan used dozens of tables to reinforce the blockade.
Once he finished securing that side, Ethan turned his attention to the other staircase. To prevent zombies from flanking him and cutting off his escape route, he sealed off the second stairwell with more tables. However, mindful of needing a fallback option if the main barricade failed, he left a small gap—just wide enough for one person to slip through by shifting two tables aside.
The entire process took Ethan nearly an hour. Even with his improved constitution from leveling up, he was utterly exhausted, collapsing into a chair and gasping for breath.
Still, as he surveyed his handiwork, Ethan couldn’t help but feel a sense of satisfaction.
After a brief rest, an idea struck Ethan. He collected a dozen of the tables into his storage ring, thinking, “If the zombies overpower me, I can throw these out as barriers to buy some time.”
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